1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an optical disk device. More specifically, the present invention relates to an optical disk device that reproduces an audio data stream selected from among a plurality of audio data streams recorded to an optical disk.
2. Background Information
A conventional optical disk device that reproduces video or audio recorded on a Blu-ray disc or other such optical disk has seen practical application, and has become popular. When an optical disk records a foreign movie or the like, the optical disk also records audio in a plurality of different acoustic qualities corresponding to the function of an amplifier connected to the optical disk device. For example, with a Blu-ray disc, the audio in a plurality of different acoustic qualities includes DTS-HD Master Audio of the highest acoustic quality, Dolby TrueHD of the second-highest quality, and so forth. DTS stands for Digital Theater System, and is a standard that came after Dolby Digital. A plurality of audio data streams is recorded to the optical disk in order to reproduce audio in a plurality of different acoustic qualities.
The optical disk device generally reproduces a menu screen prior to the reproduction of the main content when an optical disk to which a plurality of audio data streams have been recorded is placed in a main body of the optical disk device. The user uses the menu screen to select the acoustic quality to be reproduced. Then, the optical disk device reproduces, via the amplifier, the audio data stream selected by the user from among the plurality of audio data streams recorded to the optical disk. This allows the user to hear the audio of the desired acoustic quality from a speaker connected to the amplifier.
Furthermore, an audio/video reproduction device has been proposed (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2008-52887, for example).
However, a user often does not select the acoustic quality to be reproduced because the user does not want to take the trouble to do so, or for some other such reason. In such a case, even if a high-quality audio data stream has been recorded, and the high-quality audio data stream can be processed by the amplifier so that an audio signal can be outputted to the speaker, the conventional optical disk device reproduces the default low-quality audio data stream that is preset by the control program recorded on the optical disk. Accordingly, with the conventional optical disk device, low-quality audio is sometimes reproduced even if a high-quality audio data stream has been recorded, and the high-quality audio data stream can be processed by the amplifier so that the audio signal can be outputted to the speaker.